The German first considered coming out when he was still a player with Wolfsburg in 2011-12 but was discouraged from doing so by people who warned him of the negative consequences.

The former Everton and West Ham player revealed his sexuality in an interview with a German newspaper on Monday, after telling his friends and family.

“I was surprised and happy that they were all totally OK with it. Where I come from, in rural Bavaria, homosexuality is considered ‘un-normal’. I knew that there would be negative reactions from those who will never understand it, also towards my family, but that didn’t bother them. I’ve had nothing but total support from them,” he told The Guardian newspaper.

Hitzlsperger had been engaged to his childhood sweetheart after an eight year relationship before breaking up with her shortly before their scheduled wedding in 2008.

It was only towards the end of his playing career that he admitted to himself that he was gay.

“It took me a long time to realise how I felt because when I started playing professional football, I was in a relationship with a woman. We stayed together for 8 years, and after the time we broke up I focused more on football because it was all I wanted to do.”

“It was only in the last few years I realised that I do want to live with a man, that I am gay, but had never had the need to talk about it openly until this day.”

“I think young players these days when they are sure of their feelings, they can talk about it. And hopefully by talking about it the way I do now, it encourages others as they see then can play at the highest level and be gay – it’s not a contradiction.”

Hitzlsperger, nicknamed as ‘The Hammer’ during his days in the Premier League, said that while he had heard homophobic comments while on the pitch, he does not believe that football is hostile to gays.

“I don’t know if football is such a homophobic environment. People just speculate this would be the case.”

“Since we haven’t seen a gay footballer in the Premier League or the Bundesliga, it’s hard to say that this would happen. We would have to wait and see.”